The increased use of small portable computers, tablet devices, and smartphones to play back movies, videos, high quality audio, as well as to support audio-intensive applications (e.g., games, simulators, Audio/Visual content production, and so on) poses significant challenges to small-scale transducer designs. Because of their small size and deployment in portable devices the transducers (drivers) are often small and relatively inexpensive. They are also often located in less than optimal locations of a device, and are not particularly well packaged within the device. With the emphasis on light-weight, large displays, low power, and so on, audio circuitry is often compromised. Technological advances in speakers and audio processing that are made for home audio applications are often not applied to mobile applications because of severe space constraints and cost considerations.
One significant disadvantage associated with small-scale portable transducer is the fact that they typically have very limited bass or low frequency response. This is largely due to the small transducer size, as well as the lack of any meaningful resonance cavity within the body of increasingly thinner and lighter weight devices. The lack of meaningful bass response significantly limits the ability of such devices to faithfully reproduce a wide range of audio content. Thus, there is an ongoing need to improve the lower frequency performance of tablet, mobile phone and laptop loudspeaker systems.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.